Camoin Method, Example for Analysis, Lee #1

Lee

At Paul's suggestion, I'm posting a spread of my own. My apologies that I cannot supply an image.

The reading is for myself. On Sunday, my PC died, probably from a power surge (even though I have it plugged into a UPS/surge protector). This was a particularly difficult experience for me since my entire life revolves around my PC. I work from home, and I have to have large and complicated programs loaded on it. Plus I also mentor others in my company, involving large amounts of old e-mail which I need to be able to reference. The PC's death meant I had to spend the following day loading the software on my partner's PC, which I had to commandeer. Then I had to order a new PC, which came on Wednesday, and I had to spend four hours on Wednesday night loading it all over again, getting to sleep at midnight and having to wake up early the next morning.

While I had saved the major information I need for work, there were other things for work that I hadn't bothered saving, so I lost those. Plus I lost all my saved e-mails, which wasn't totally my fault as there is no easy way to back up e-mails in Outlook Express, which is what I was using. Ironically, as part of my mentoring function at work, I periodically remind people to back up their info in case their system crashes.

So, coming out of the week, I'm pretty much shellshocked. At this point everything's basically settled down and back to normal.

So my question is, how has this difficult week affected me, and how (if at all) will it change my attitudes/behavior in the future?

I've deliberately asked a somewhat mundane and limited question, partly because I really want to know the answer, but also partly because I want to see how the method deals with this kind of question.

Here's the whole layout:

...................La Force............Le Diable

La
Maison...........Letoille
Dieu...............Reversed..........La Lune..........Le Mat..........La Justice
....................(Past)..............(Present)........(Future)

La Maison Dieu would be placed later on in the reading, after Letoille is put upright. La Maison Dieu presents a bit of a challenge, since its standard negative meaning fits in very well with this question, while Camoin's positive meaning is more difficult to integrate.

I've already started to make some connections but I'd like to see what others come up with first. I'll merely note that I counted 26 bare feet in this spread.

Paul

I'll provide an image, shortly.

Paul

Here's the image. I do wish I could post this image into the text of the post.

Paul

Just a wee bit of a notation: This will confuse, I think, but it is important.

The fact that we place a card in the direction of a subsequently uprighted-gaze, does not always, incontrovertibly, and necessarily mean that the meaning of the card is ONLY taken into account after the card is uprighted. (Even though I may have said that.) There is actually flexibility here. Which is why some readers of the Camoin Method like to see all of the cards on the table first.

So, La Maison Dieu's presence in the overall spread, certainly stands for the computer, which up to this point, was a tower of strength for Lee. The power surge idea is undeniable, a child would have made that connection, thus it must be right!

Paul

With this method, you will always see your topic "confirmed". Thus the presence of La Maison Dieu confirms, yes-- we are talking about that computer thing.

Ok -- I'll shut up now and allow commentary.

Aoife

Apologies for rushing...
Based on Camoin's 'meanings'...

The Moon in the present... "clairvoyance"... using the tarot to gain insight into an event that happened in "the past".

L'Etoile reversed in the past... hubris... perhaps a belief that you would intuitively know [still present with The Moon] when something was going wrong with your computer, but not allowing for an external fault [power surge] defeating your 'in house' defences? [I note that all of the lower row cards are situated outdoors]

La Force as the solution... suggests you will find the answers you seek. The "need to control one's energies" might be a pun... check that your surge protector is working properly? "Removing a problem that seems unsolvable" may be advice to check wiring etc.... to track down the cause of the crash? [The infinity symbol and the lacing on La Force's robe suggests to me that crossed wires may be significant]

Le Mat in the future... representing your "quest" to understand the repercussions, and how they might change your future behaviour.

Le Mat regards Justice.... "the tightrope walker who walks on the wire of his existence" [wire!]... the need for balance so that your life is not turned upside down by such an event again.

Lee, I'd be interested to see a card drawn to the right of Justice - to see "what needs to be brought into balance" and/or a card above Justice "the subtle reason for which Justice comes into action".

My apologies for the piecemeal comments. I wish I had time to do this more thoroughly... but I was so eager to participate.

Paul

Let's see how Lee's own language and story is reflected in the cards, with the simplicity of a flowing dreamscape.

Lee said:
On Sunday, my PC died, probably from a power surge (even though I have it plugged into a UPS/surge protector).

XVI La Maison Dieu

This was a particularly difficult experience for me since my entire life revolves around my PC.

XVII Le Toille, reversed.

Watch the water in the cards; it is a metaphor for computer data.

I work from home, and I have to have large and complicated programs loaded on it. Plus I also mentor others in my company, involving large amounts of old e-mail which I need to be able to reference.

Jugs pouring out water. Water seems to take on the meaning of computer data, as well as Lee's psychology. There's an interesting connectivity here between Lee's lost computer data and his psychological states.

The PC's death meant I had to spend the following day loading the software on my partner's PC, which I had to commandeer.

XI LA Force clearly commandeering!

Then I had to order a new PC,

XV - money outlay. le Diable can also be containing the data again, the imps are bound, but the dogs are free in La Lune below. he is trying to take back control and possibly uncontrollable situation. What primitive emotions have all of us experienced with computer problems? no?

which came on Wednesday, and I had to spend four hours on Wednesday night loading it all over again, getting to sleep at midnight and having to wake up early the next morning.

XVIII La Lune...midnight.

So, coming out of the week, I'm pretty much shellshocked. At this point everything's basically settled down and back to normal.

Le Mat.

So my question is, how has this difficult week affected me, and how (if at all) will it change my attitudes/behavior in the future?

The sudden disruption of XVI La Maison Dieu turns into the controlled quietude of VIII La Justice. You are self-examining in regards to how to have a backup for the future, so you won't have to experience this shock, the water on La Lune (choppy and contained) goes to the still water on Le Diable, still and open. Water in this reading is computer data.
You are looking for a solution that will not involve containing a disrupted data crisis, but foreseeing it, allowing data to flow in and out, but remain still and predictable.

The question is simple, the answer is simple. But, if there is a deeper meaning here, then the computer data loss, disruption, and containment may be an interesting synchronous metaphor for your mind, heart, psychology?
But, I risk getting too esoteric here.

But, I could be totally wrong. Anyone else?

Lee

Hi Aoife! Your interpretation was very similar in most respects to my own. Great minds think alike!

Aoife said:
The Moon in the present... "clairvoyance"... using the tarot to gain insight into an event that happened in "the past".

This was good, I hadn't thought of this.

L'Etoile reversed in the past... hubris... perhaps a belief that you would intuitively know [still present with The Moon] when something was going wrong with your computer, but not allowing for an external fault [power surge] defeating your 'in house' defences?

This was exactly how I read it.

La Force as the solution... suggests you will find the answers you seek.

This also, exactly as I read it.

The "need to control one's energies" might be a pun... check that your surge protector is working properly?

This was very clever, I hadn't noticed the references in Camoin's meanings to "energies" and "wire" which can be applied to electrical issues.

Le Mat regards Justice.... "the tightrope walker who walks on the wire of his existence" [wire!]... the need for balance so that your life is not turned upside down by such an event again.

This was a good interpretation... I interpreted it similarly, as myself on a journey towards balance.

My apologies for the piecemeal comments. I wish I had time to do this more thoroughly... but I was so eager to participate.

Don't apologize, you had great comments!

Paul said:
Let's see how Lee's own language and story is reflected in the cards, with the simplicity of a flowing dreamscape.

Paul, I really enjoyed your very illuminating and highly entertaining analysis! I really had a good laugh when I went back and read my narrative and saw that, as you suggested, it tracks with each card in the layout exactly, in precise order -- and I didn't even realize it, LOL!

I was very intrigued by your analogy of water with computer data. It's quite true, data has some liquid properties -- it flows, people talk of "data streams", etc. I'm working hard on thinking outside the box when it comes to making connections, but it's hard, I guess my brain has ossified to a certain extent after decades of standard tarot interpretations. I've been reading the Authentique site (nice site!) and also Enrique's e-book (nice e-book!), but the only way I'll really improve in this area is to continue to practice it in readings.

Regarding La Maison Dieu, it does certainly seem intuitive to identify it with the power surge. However, after thinking about it, I also think there could be room for a more positive interpretation, an after-uprighting-reversed-Letoille interpretation -- that is, solving the reversed-Letoille problem will result in any future power surges being less disruptive, so that I can keep dancing in the streets and doing handstands without care.

The only thing I really want to add to Aoife's and Paul's analyses is how I saw Le Diable. I saw him as basically a personification of wild and unpredictable power fluctuations, sort of like the monster that appears on the wing of the plane in the William Shatner episode of The Twilight Zone. The flaming, hilt-less sword symbolizes the untamed energies with which he can hurt himself as well as others (after all, a power outage will eradicate his own existence). He stands on a yellow sphere which makes me think of an electrical transformer. The imps symbolize homes -- or even individual computers -- connected to the power company by wires. They are content (smiling) to be receiving their power but they're unaware of the constant danger looming over their power supply.

But, if there is a deeper meaning here, then the computer data loss, disruption, and containment may be an interesting synchronous metaphor for your mind, heart, psychology?

This was an interesting comment. In fact, it so happens that containing disruption and loss seems to be a constant theme in my life. However, I don't know if there's anything special about me in that regard, or if that's just the human condition, which everyone experiences.

I really enjoyed this exercise and reading Aoife's and Paul's comments -- and I'd love to read anyone else's take, don't be shy! Or post your own layouts in new threads. I'd really like to see this exchange continue.

Lee

Oh, I almost forgot! As I noted in my first post, there were an awful lot of bare feet in this spread. In this context, they make me feel vulnerable and unprotected, as I obviously was.

Paul

Lee said:
I was very intrigued by your analogy of water with computer data. It's quite true, data has some liquid properties -- it flows, people talk of "data streams", etc. I'm working hard on thinking outside the box when it comes to making connections, but it's hard, I guess my brain has ossified to a certain extent after decades of standard tarot interpretations. I've been reading the Authentique site (nice site!) and also Enrique's e-book (nice e-book!), but the only way I'll really improve in this area is to continue to practice it in readings.

Thank you. Yes, there's a Tarot Semantics article there called the Language of Tarot, which explains the semantic devices of looking at a particular card or particular sign on a card. For example, with a little imagination, XX Le Jugement can be a "tanning booth"! This is the sign-as-image. Typically, Tarot readers mostly use sign-as-symbol which does not tap the potential of the TdM.

I really like the computer-as-Le Diable idea, BTW. But, I also think that because the water was still and flowing in long straight lines, like a data cord, and in other cards, the water was having "issues," that Le Diable also symbolizes you ensuring that data is not lost in the future. It could really cover both meanings, being a computer that works well to contain and flow your data.

This is the power of the TdM's "iconicity" as Enrique Enriquez discusses. It allows the TdM imagery to cross time and signify even modern ideas, with a little imagination!

Camoin Method, Example for Analysis, Lee #1

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